Funerals begin for first two Uvalde school shooting victims

In a heart-wrenching scene that will be repeated 21 times in the coming weeks, two little girls were laid to rest Tuesday — the first funerals for victims of an elementary school slaughter carried out by a deranged teenaged gunman in Uvalde, Texas.

Amerie Jo Garza and Maite Rodríguez were mourned by their families and a stunned nation at the start of an incomprehensible procession of 21 memorials and 19 child-size coffins for the youngest victims of the Robb Elementary School massacre. Two teachers were also killed in the bloodbath.

Amerie was remembered first during an afternoon mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where a crush of mourners came to pray and grieve. Some were turned away because there was no more room.

Amerie, who was posthumously awarded the Girl Scout Bronze Cross for her bravery, was calling 911 when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, armed with a military-style rifle and dressed in tactical gear, opened fire. Her stepfather, a medical technician, was tending to survivors when he found out that Amerie had been shot.

[ The 21 ‘beautiful angels’ who lost their lives in Uvalde, Texas school shooting ]

Her family remembered Amerie as a “kind, caring, blunt, loving, sweet, sassy and, of course, funny little diva who ‘hated dresses,’” in an online obituary that included a photo of her in a purple dress — her favorite color. “She truly had a heart of gold.”

Many attendees wore purple for the service in honor of the little girl. Six pallbearers, wearing white shirts and gloves, carried her small coffin into the church.

Maite’s funeral started hours later at Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary in Uvalde. Visitation was held throughout the day before the service began in the early evening. The funeral home requested “no reporters or photographers on property grounds,” according to the Guardian.

Maite learned to sew from YouTube videos and dreamed of being a marine biologist. She was the youngest of three, “sweet, charismatic, loving, caring, loyal, free, ambitious, funny, silly (and) goal driven,” her mother wrote on Facebook.

But their families’ goodbyes are shadowed by troubling questions about how Ramos got into the school, why didn’t the police stop him, and who made the decision to keep the officers outside while the bloodshed and bodies piled up.

On Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety director Col. Steven McCraw said the Uvalde school district police chief made the call not to enter the classroom and stop Ramos’ rampage.

The chief, McCraw said, believed it had turned into a barricade situation and that his officers had time to wait for a key.

Children, including Amerie, were still on the line with 911 at that point.

“Obviously, based on the information we have, there were children in that classroom that were still at risk,” McCraw said Friday. “From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period.”

McCraw did not name the chief, but Pedro “Pete” Arredondo is the school police chief for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. His swearing-in to the Uvalde City Council was scheduled for Tuesday but has been delayed.

The Department of Justice announced Sunday it will launch an investigation into the police response to Tuesday’s shooting.

A dozen funerals are scheduled for this week, with the remaining set for the following weeks. Two Uvalde funeral homes last week said they would waive all charges as a temporary respite.

In addition to Amerie and Maite’s funerals, visitations were held Tuesday for two children, Nevaeh Bravo and Jose Flores Jr., and one of the teachers, Irma Garcia.

The last scheduled service, for 11-year-old Layla Salazar, is set for June 16. Her father Vincent said Tuesday the family still has not seen Layla’s body.

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“It’s strange because usually when somebody dies, these things happen in three or four days,” Salazar said. “It’s not something that goes on this long. I understand there were other children as well, but we’re just waiting to get her back. That’s all we’re focused on.”

Local leaders said that with so many dead in the small, 16,000-person city, several bodies had been sent to funeral homes out of town.

“It’s mainly because of the number of victims,” Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Eulalio Diaz Jr said. “Where do you store that many people?”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a disaster in Uvalde on Tuesday, a declaration that allows resources available through the state of Texas and local jurisdictions “to continue providing much needed support to all who were impacted and work in the community unencumbered by regulations unnecessary to respond to this tragedy,” he said.

The multiagency investigation into the shooting also continued Tuesday, with Texas state police saying that a teacher who had propped open an exterior door to Robb Elementary had actually closed the door before Ramos entered. However, it didn’t lock.

“We did verify she closed the door,” Travis Considine of the Texas Department of Public Safety said. “The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock.”

With News Wire Services